I am sure everyone is happy to see 2009 go away.
I hope everyone has a prosperous and happy 2010!
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Melissa's art has a website!
Hey I'm really happy to announce that Melissa now has a website for her art! This is a culmination of many hours of work by her deciding which images to show, writing and rewriting her bio and making Nicolas take innumerable pictures of her until she had one she liked. :)
It is a really great site and hopefully is the start of many bigger things!
Check it out!
http://www.melissakreisa.com/
Congratulations Melissa!
It is a really great site and hopefully is the start of many bigger things!
Check it out!
http://www.melissakreisa.com/
Congratulations Melissa!
Monday, December 28, 2009
Stopping the slide
It's been a few months now since I last ran and I was really starting to feel bad about that. Additionally due to a few extra portions of holiday food and cheer I was starting to see the weight I had worked so hard to lose come back on slowly. I guess the final straw was related to the new Wii we got at Christmas. One of the "games" we have is called Wii Fit and includes this nifty little balance board that it uses for many of the activities.
In setting up my WiiMii (virtual John) in the Wii Fit it does a body mass estimate and everyone in the family came up in the healthy range, except me. Now, I'll claim that I am also the only one in the family who has worked out with weights and has a higher body mass but it still made for some well intentioned ribbing from the rest of the family.
So anyway I've decided to stop the slide and get back to running. I was going to make it a New Years resolution however the situation appears to be serious and cannot wait!
In setting up my WiiMii (virtual John) in the Wii Fit it does a body mass estimate and everyone in the family came up in the healthy range, except me. Now, I'll claim that I am also the only one in the family who has worked out with weights and has a higher body mass but it still made for some well intentioned ribbing from the rest of the family.
So anyway I've decided to stop the slide and get back to running. I was going to make it a New Years resolution however the situation appears to be serious and cannot wait!
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Week with Willie
This past week we dog sat a 2 year old Bernese Mountain dog (sometimes called a Berner) named Willie for a friend at work. Willie is an awesome dog. He was great with the kids, REALLY attached to Melissa. He was a little skittish around me but eventually got very used to my presence and would let me pet him and scratch his ears. He was particularly fond of that for sure.
We loved having him here and he was really beautiful. In fact the breeder picked him up today to take him to a dog show over the next few days. He was a very high quality dog and we heard that he would cost $2000 as a puppy!! So we won't be getting one of these anytime soon!
We are missing him tonight.
You can see a bunch more pictures by clicking on this link:
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Weird videos the kids like: first edition
There are MANY weird and random videos that the kids like on YouTube (YouTube is a user contributed video site where anyone can load almost anything). We don't let the kids randomly search on YouTube for obvious reasons so I guess they hear of these things from friends at school. Anyway I thought I would share some of them with you over a series of posts.
One that is really pretty weird is a series videos about magic unicorns focused around a grumpy and sardonic unicorn named Charlie. There are two other nameless unicorns that Charlie has to deal with and they are normally bothering him while he is trying to sleep. Ultimately they talk him into going on some rather hard to describe adventures where something happens to Charlie.
There is a series of 4 I think and they are fairly heavily viewed out there on the Internet. I'll post them in order so you can follow the "story" as much as there is one. They are really more like short episodes.
In the first episode the two unicorns talk Charlie into going to "Candy Mountain" whatever that is.
Here Charlie is the "Banana" king.
Here is the third in the series:
Here is the fourth - if you are still watching they are pretty weird right!
Strange!
One that is really pretty weird is a series videos about magic unicorns focused around a grumpy and sardonic unicorn named Charlie. There are two other nameless unicorns that Charlie has to deal with and they are normally bothering him while he is trying to sleep. Ultimately they talk him into going on some rather hard to describe adventures where something happens to Charlie.
There is a series of 4 I think and they are fairly heavily viewed out there on the Internet. I'll post them in order so you can follow the "story" as much as there is one. They are really more like short episodes.
In the first episode the two unicorns talk Charlie into going to "Candy Mountain" whatever that is.
Here Charlie is the "Banana" king.
Here is the third in the series:
Here is the fourth - if you are still watching they are pretty weird right!
Strange!
Cool work videos
We've started using a cool San Francisco based company called the Kenwood Group to create neat and inspiring opening videos for some of the events we do at work. We put on several large events each year, one for our existing customers called a user conference, one for our publishing customers called the Digital Publishing Summit and one for our government customers called the Government Summit (creative I know).
I really like the look of these videos and was just sharing them with Melissa and Julia last night so I thought I would share them with you!
This is from our user conference:
This is from our government summit in November:
This is from our publishing summit in December.
I hope you enjoy them!
I really like the look of these videos and was just sharing them with Melissa and Julia last night so I thought I would share them with you!
This is from our user conference:
This is from our government summit in November:
This is from our publishing summit in December.
I hope you enjoy them!
Saturday, December 19, 2009
More on being a boy...
We've always encourage the kids to come in and snuggle with us in the mornings, particularly on weekend mornings when we are lazing around in bed (well one of the adults is anyway =). We figure that the kids will be too old (or too large) to care very soon -- so we value this special time...
Now a days it is still dark in the morning and we are dead asleep when they come in. There is a distinct gender difference in the approach to HOW they come in. The girls wander in almost silently, quietly walking up to the side of the bed, waiting on some acknowledgement that we notice them and want them to climb in. Then they ease into an open spot . Then then snuggle up keeping the covers high, find a pillow spot, and close their eyes and relax. The process is very warm, gentle and nice.Nicolas on the other hand is a different little beast. You can hear him coming a mile a way (well not a mile since our house isn't that big) but you get the point. He runs in with heavy footfalls (THUMP, THUMP, THUMP) in a very distinctive way. As he enters our room and rounds towards the bed he looks for a landing spot...
Now for a landing spot he is not really looking to see if anything is in his way, rather just aiming for somewhere -- anywhere on the bed. He launches himself up onto the bed usually landing on his knees. This means if he lands on the wrong place it can be really quite painful!!! He rarely misses body parts completely and if one of the girls is there first, he inevitably lands on one of them.Once on the bed he scrambles over to the top of the covers (again with disregard for where he is kneeing) and moves under the covers as quickly as possible.
This is all very disruptive. The unconscious parts of our brain has been trained to wake and be alert as soon as we hear his footsteps coming down the hall (a survival mechanism). Failure to take preventative action can cost you dearly, it has me many times.Even when under the covers he is the epitome of a whirling dervish (whatever that is) rotating around and around, climbing on Melissa, diving under the covers etc. He only spends a few moments sitting still before he is moving again.He is a disruptive force that shatters the quite tranquility that is the early morning sleeping chambers.
Now a days it is still dark in the morning and we are dead asleep when they come in. There is a distinct gender difference in the approach to HOW they come in. The girls wander in almost silently, quietly walking up to the side of the bed, waiting on some acknowledgement that we notice them and want them to climb in. Then they ease into an open spot . Then then snuggle up keeping the covers high, find a pillow spot, and close their eyes and relax. The process is very warm, gentle and nice.Nicolas on the other hand is a different little beast. You can hear him coming a mile a way (well not a mile since our house isn't that big) but you get the point. He runs in with heavy footfalls (THUMP, THUMP, THUMP) in a very distinctive way. As he enters our room and rounds towards the bed he looks for a landing spot...
Now for a landing spot he is not really looking to see if anything is in his way, rather just aiming for somewhere -- anywhere on the bed. He launches himself up onto the bed usually landing on his knees. This means if he lands on the wrong place it can be really quite painful!!! He rarely misses body parts completely and if one of the girls is there first, he inevitably lands on one of them.Once on the bed he scrambles over to the top of the covers (again with disregard for where he is kneeing) and moves under the covers as quickly as possible.
This is all very disruptive. The unconscious parts of our brain has been trained to wake and be alert as soon as we hear his footsteps coming down the hall (a survival mechanism). Failure to take preventative action can cost you dearly, it has me many times.Even when under the covers he is the epitome of a whirling dervish (whatever that is) rotating around and around, climbing on Melissa, diving under the covers etc. He only spends a few moments sitting still before he is moving again.He is a disruptive force that shatters the quite tranquility that is the early morning sleeping chambers.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Little man - big voice
I'm not sure whether it is the age, being a boy, being the third or all of the above but Nicolas has started to burst out at the top of his lungs! This can be at any moment, in a quite house, in the car, in a grocery store, outside (which is OK), where ever we are he will belt out almost anything!
The scenario typically goes like this. We are sitting at breakfast, eating, chatting what ever and I might ask Nicolas if he would like more milk, to which he responds "YES I WOULD LIKE MORE MILK!!!"
He might even do this if he is not addressed. He will below out things like "I"VE GOT TO GO TO THE BATHROOM!!!" and of course we say "that is great, can you use an inside voice?" and he will answer "YES I WILL!!!"
Now he is a little guy but he is getting amazing volume out of those little lungs! If his subliminal goal is to get attention he certainly does that. Everyone in the family ends up staring at him as if he were mad.
I am really hoping this is just a stage and not a trend!
"PLEASE!!"
The scenario typically goes like this. We are sitting at breakfast, eating, chatting what ever and I might ask Nicolas if he would like more milk, to which he responds "YES I WOULD LIKE MORE MILK!!!"
He might even do this if he is not addressed. He will below out things like "I"VE GOT TO GO TO THE BATHROOM!!!" and of course we say "that is great, can you use an inside voice?" and he will answer "YES I WILL!!!"
Now he is a little guy but he is getting amazing volume out of those little lungs! If his subliminal goal is to get attention he certainly does that. Everyone in the family ends up staring at him as if he were mad.
I am really hoping this is just a stage and not a trend!
"PLEASE!!"
Problems with Purple Puffles
All of our kids are extremely enamored with a Disney online kids website called Club Penguin. Club Penguin is an interactive virtual world where kids are penguins and can interact in a limited fashion with other penguins (kids). The penguins are customizable in a limited way so they can choose a color, a hat and a few other things. This virtual world is quite rich and there are lots and lots of penguins running around. On any given Saturday there are thousands of penguins running around in literally hundreds of penguin towns. In fact you can see if a friend is in a town and go to that town to interact so our kids will go and play games together virtually in their little world and some of their school friends will meet them online.
As far as the little environment there are towns with shops and various kinds of interactive games the kids can play. For example there are skiing games, surfing games (penguins don't care if the water is cold apparently). The world changes based on the seasons (of the northern hemisphere so must be a little strange for those down under for example) and currently the club penguin world is all wintery with snow on the ground and occasional snow precipitation. It is really quite amazing. Penguins have an individual home and penguins can earn coins by completing skill games. With the money they earn they can by things like furniture for their home, which is actually an igloo.
Penguins can also have little pets called puffles. This is partially where the diabolical nature of this little world comes in. Puffles are little round balls of fur from what I can tell and they are available in a variety of colors. The puffles need to be fed and I think they have to be purchased with the virtual money so the kids have to earn to get and keep a pet which is not necessarily a bad lesson. The issue is that there are two modes to Club Penguin - free and paid. In the free world kids can do a lot, lots of games, lots of adventures, stores etc. They can also get a good number of the puffles. It turns out that for a modest fee of about $5/month they can "join" club penguin and there is more cool stuff available. In particular they can purchase a wider varitey of things in their little world. They can get different and fancier furniture for their igloo, they can take special rides, there are new and different games etc. And, they can get a wider range of colors for their puffles. In fact there are a limited number of puffles and in order to get "all" the puffles you do need to be a member.
The problems around here came when our kids (mostly Lea and Nicolas) wanted to get the last of the puffles which required them to join. This last puffle they wanted to get was as you probably have guessed by now, was purple.
So, both Lea and Nicolas are now members (Julia is a member of some other fairy site) and in addition to getting the purple puffle they will now be able to participate in the holiday sleigh ride which occurs today.
That is my problem with purple puffles.
Click here to see the start page for Club Penguin.
p.s. don't worry they still play plenty of "real" imaginary games (Melissa says pretend games) which are not on the computer.
As far as the little environment there are towns with shops and various kinds of interactive games the kids can play. For example there are skiing games, surfing games (penguins don't care if the water is cold apparently). The world changes based on the seasons (of the northern hemisphere so must be a little strange for those down under for example) and currently the club penguin world is all wintery with snow on the ground and occasional snow precipitation. It is really quite amazing. Penguins have an individual home and penguins can earn coins by completing skill games. With the money they earn they can by things like furniture for their home, which is actually an igloo.
Penguins can also have little pets called puffles. This is partially where the diabolical nature of this little world comes in. Puffles are little round balls of fur from what I can tell and they are available in a variety of colors. The puffles need to be fed and I think they have to be purchased with the virtual money so the kids have to earn to get and keep a pet which is not necessarily a bad lesson. The issue is that there are two modes to Club Penguin - free and paid. In the free world kids can do a lot, lots of games, lots of adventures, stores etc. They can also get a good number of the puffles. It turns out that for a modest fee of about $5/month they can "join" club penguin and there is more cool stuff available. In particular they can purchase a wider varitey of things in their little world. They can get different and fancier furniture for their igloo, they can take special rides, there are new and different games etc. And, they can get a wider range of colors for their puffles. In fact there are a limited number of puffles and in order to get "all" the puffles you do need to be a member.
The problems around here came when our kids (mostly Lea and Nicolas) wanted to get the last of the puffles which required them to join. This last puffle they wanted to get was as you probably have guessed by now, was purple.
So, both Lea and Nicolas are now members (Julia is a member of some other fairy site) and in addition to getting the purple puffle they will now be able to participate in the holiday sleigh ride which occurs today.
That is my problem with purple puffles.
Click here to see the start page for Club Penguin.
p.s. don't worry they still play plenty of "real" imaginary games (Melissa says pretend games) which are not on the computer.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
BCS Championship Tickets! - Hook 'Em Horns!
I just received my tickets for the College football championship game (called the Bowl Championship Series or BCS) which features the University of Texas vs. The University of Alabama. It's the Longhorns vs. the Crimson tide at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena CA. and the game will be played on January 7th. Needless to say I am excited!
Here's a photo, these are really nice looking tickets with 4 different images on each ticket. There are 4 in the middle, the rest is supporting information.
Here's a photo, these are really nice looking tickets with 4 different images on each ticket. There are 4 in the middle, the rest is supporting information.
More about the game itself later.
Lucky future!
I just saw this video for this really cool new prototype device for reading and interacting with magazine content on a handheld device. It is completely conceptual and I think it is super cool and represents and exciting new future in the way we will interact with information. It looks like something right out of a movie to me. Enjoy!
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Pictures from my kayaking trip
I am completely remiss! Click here to see pictures from my kayaking trip before Thanksgiving. It was awesome and I have tons of great memories!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=181686&id=578330169&l=0d3c3cbfc9
I know I owe a more detailed account of the trip and will follow up with one as soon as I can.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=181686&id=578330169&l=0d3c3cbfc9
I know I owe a more detailed account of the trip and will follow up with one as soon as I can.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Greg Mortenson - Amazing Man!
Last night Melissa, Julia and I were fortunate enough to go see Greg Mortenson speak at Foothill college in Los Altos. If you are not familiar Greg is the climber turned school builder in central Asia. He is the author of two books, "Three Cups of Tea" and "Stones into Schools" the latter being the sequel and recently released.
Greg is a good speaker and has some of the most amazing stories around his work. In short he believes that by building schools and educating girls he can bring about peace in this very tough region which is a hot bed of extremism. He has built more than 128 schools in extremely remote valleys to try and make a difference.
He is very passionate about his cause and it is hard not to get caught up in it. On our way over to the talk Julia (who has read the young readers edition of three cups of tea) said "I hope some of his light rubs of on me." Wow, did I say she was 9 going on 19? Might be that she is 9 going on 39, no wait, I'm still not that deep!
If you haven't had a chance to read his books I highly recommend them. His cause and efforts to help with peace are lauded at the highest levels of the government and the military. In fact his book three cups is required reading by military commanders operating in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Pick up a copy.
Greg is a good speaker and has some of the most amazing stories around his work. In short he believes that by building schools and educating girls he can bring about peace in this very tough region which is a hot bed of extremism. He has built more than 128 schools in extremely remote valleys to try and make a difference.
He is very passionate about his cause and it is hard not to get caught up in it. On our way over to the talk Julia (who has read the young readers edition of three cups of tea) said "I hope some of his light rubs of on me." Wow, did I say she was 9 going on 19? Might be that she is 9 going on 39, no wait, I'm still not that deep!
If you haven't had a chance to read his books I highly recommend them. His cause and efforts to help with peace are lauded at the highest levels of the government and the military. In fact his book three cups is required reading by military commanders operating in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Pick up a copy.
Hurray for the Symphony!!
We just returned from an excellent holiday performance by the San Francisco Youth Orchestra!
The kids in the orchestra were amazingly talented (age range from 11-20) and the music sounded great. The event was in a concert hall at a local college and I splurged so we had 8th row seats dead center so no action was missed by the kids. You could see and feel every detail of the music and for the most part they stared with rapt attention.
The show was an annual Peter and the Wolf concert where they played multiple holiday classics.
I really wanted the kids to have this experience and it did not disappoint!
Here is the program:
Program
Tchaikovsky - Trepak from The Nutcracker
Tchaikovsky - Waltz from The Sleeping Beauty
Leroy Anderson -Bugler’s Holiday
James Tenney - Wake for Charles Ives
Ernst Toch - Geographical Fugue
Prokofiev
Peter and the Wolf (read byLinda Rondstadt!)
Sing alongs:
Jingle Bells - Arr. Manly Romero
Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer
We Wish you a Merry Christmas
The kids in the orchestra were amazingly talented (age range from 11-20) and the music sounded great. The event was in a concert hall at a local college and I splurged so we had 8th row seats dead center so no action was missed by the kids. You could see and feel every detail of the music and for the most part they stared with rapt attention.
The show was an annual Peter and the Wolf concert where they played multiple holiday classics.
I really wanted the kids to have this experience and it did not disappoint!
Here is the program:
Program
Tchaikovsky - Trepak from The Nutcracker
Tchaikovsky - Waltz from The Sleeping Beauty
Leroy Anderson -Bugler’s Holiday
James Tenney - Wake for Charles Ives
Ernst Toch - Geographical Fugue
Prokofiev
Peter and the Wolf (read byLinda Rondstadt!)
Sing alongs:
Jingle Bells - Arr. Manly Romero
Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer
We Wish you a Merry Christmas
Friday, December 11, 2009
Ready for Christmas
Well thanks to Melissa and the kids the house is ready for Santa's visit! We've got the tree up, the wreath is out, the lights are on the front bushes. The kids and I spent about 2 hours decorating the tree with all of the ornaments and for the first time I can remember they were very helpful in the process and did a great job of spreading things out. I'll have to include a picture when I land (still on the plane!)
There are more houses in the neighborhood decorated than I can remember so the it is very festive around us.
The presents do still need to be purchased so we have some work to do this weekend!
Happy holidays and Merry Christmas!
There are more houses in the neighborhood decorated than I can remember so the it is very festive around us.
The presents do still need to be purchased so we have some work to do this weekend!
Happy holidays and Merry Christmas!
Mid-air communications
It's been a little while since I've blogged so apologies to my regular readers, it has been a busy 3 weeks.
I am taking what I think will be an increasingly common occurrence to blog while flying back from a recent week long work trip to the east coast. The United plane I am on is equipped with a free wireless connection and I can connect to email and the Internet like I am sitting at my kitchen table at home.
As far as performance of the connection it is fast despite the fact that I see many other open PCs who are probably using it too.
I think overall this is exceedingly cool!
On the down side it robs me of one of the few times I had to stay completely disconnected (although I don't HAVE to use it of course) to catch up on other things.
One of the benefits however is that I don't land to a full inbox of things to do, i knock them out along the way. The other is that I can of course communicate with others.
I have to say that it was a little surreal when I was just on instant messenger (text way to chat with another person computer - computer) with someone on the marketing team and she is also flying back from the same trip. She took off about an hour after me and we were able to catch up on some things that otherwise might have had to wait. Pretty cool to think that we were chatting away at 38,000ft on different planes!
I think I like this new development although I am sure some would argue that the world is already too connected, which may be true. I don't have to use it but I can blog again! I prefer this to offering cell phone usage as I would not want someone blathering away on a phone next to me.
I just looked out the window and we are coming over the Rockies which have a beautiful covering of snow.
Over and out!
I am taking what I think will be an increasingly common occurrence to blog while flying back from a recent week long work trip to the east coast. The United plane I am on is equipped with a free wireless connection and I can connect to email and the Internet like I am sitting at my kitchen table at home.
As far as performance of the connection it is fast despite the fact that I see many other open PCs who are probably using it too.
I think overall this is exceedingly cool!
On the down side it robs me of one of the few times I had to stay completely disconnected (although I don't HAVE to use it of course) to catch up on other things.
One of the benefits however is that I don't land to a full inbox of things to do, i knock them out along the way. The other is that I can of course communicate with others.
I have to say that it was a little surreal when I was just on instant messenger (text way to chat with another person computer - computer) with someone on the marketing team and she is also flying back from the same trip. She took off about an hour after me and we were able to catch up on some things that otherwise might have had to wait. Pretty cool to think that we were chatting away at 38,000ft on different planes!
I think I like this new development although I am sure some would argue that the world is already too connected, which may be true. I don't have to use it but I can blog again! I prefer this to offering cell phone usage as I would not want someone blathering away on a phone next to me.
I just looked out the window and we are coming over the Rockies which have a beautiful covering of snow.
Over and out!
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